


Venom's Flower

by YaToGoRi



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Bullying, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 00:51:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13088985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaToGoRi/pseuds/YaToGoRi
Summary: For as long as he can remember, Yuri has always been alone. Left abandoned and forgotten until Leo Akaba rescues him from the orphanage.At Leo's Duel Academy, Yuri has finally found somewhere he can call home. Along with someone he can open up to, and someone that can make him laugh.But when the voice starts talking, Yuri is forced to remember just how unfair life is. The world as he knew it is gone, and he will do everything he can to make sure his precious someones aren't taken as a well.





	Venom's Flower

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody!
> 
> If I'm being completely honest, I simply wrote this because I felt like it. I think Yuri deserves more love than he was given and so I give you a Yuri story. 
> 
> This does not directly follow the anime story so no Arc Area Project in this one. I did however, use Yuri's initial snippet of a backstory and tried to expand and write a new story from it. I tried to write Yuri as he is, but I wanted his to have at least some redeeming qualities. So I apologise if he acts in certain situations, very un-Yuri like. 
> 
> I edited around a bit and decided to make this Part 1 of my first ever series! Basically, I will try to make it fun for you guys and add in subtle (or maybe not so subtle) links to the other parts I have yet to write. In short I plan for around 5 or 6 parts. That may change, but they will all add up to a bigger picture/story that I plan to connect, unless of course you manage to connect the dots first :) 
> 
> As always I hope you enjoy and please let me know if I should continue!

 

 

_“The voice is getting louder…”_

_“Hmm, interesting. What does it say?”_

_“It says… that I should kill you.”_

_“Why?”_

_“It doesn’t like you. Says you can’t be trusted.”_

_“I’m not a trustworthy person, I’ve done terrible things.”_

_“It knows. It says your the reason it is dead.”_

_“I was partially responsible. But I want to change that. You will help me won’t you? Yuri.”_

 

***

 

I’ve always been alone. For as long as I can remember nobody has ever cared for me. As far as I know my parents are dead. I have no memory of them, I have no recollection of their faces, their names or what they were like. However, they didn't leave me with nothing, they left me with two things.

 

A name, a card.

 

Starve Venom Fusion Dragon and a name. A card and Yuri. Just, Yuri. 

 

The earliest my memory serves is arriving at the orphanage. A simple building of red brick in the outskirts of Domino City. The orphanage owner seemed a nice enough lady, a plump woman that insisted she was only called Tome-san. She looked after us, gave us food, beds, clothing. But she wasn’t a mother to me. She played favourites. She had many favourites. But not me. 

 

Out of all the kids in the orphanage, I was the outcast. I received less food, older clothes, scratchy blankets and was the only one who caught the disapproving looks, the turned down mouths, the flashes of annoyance when I asked for something. 

 

Her treatment of me was reflected and magnified onto the other kids. They called me names; bushy brows, cabbage head, freak, loser, reject. I was mocked, bullied and beat into submission by reality. 

 

This continued for years, this cycle of hate and disrespect. I realised early that life wasn’t fair. That winners gained everything while losers were left to rot. 

 

And so I taught myself to be a winner. 

 

Duel Monsters was my first step. This is where that precious second thing my parents left me came into play. A single, powerful, rare card. It was my ace, my symbol, my strength, my only friend and ally. Duelling fuelled my desire to become strong, and Starve Venom Fusion Dragon helped me achieve it.

 

I built a deck compatible with my ace and defeated everyone in that orphanage. I erased their mockery and replaced it with fear. I was no longer teased but respected, and it felt wonderful. I had crawled from the bottom of the ladder to the top. I didn't care that in order to get there I had to step on those below me. 

 

But conquering an orphanage was hardly a feat. I wanted more. But while I was stuck in that dingy little building I reluctantly called home, there was no way to achieve it. Duelling lost its flare, and I felt weak.

 

However, that was all changed with the arrival of a certain man. 

 

When I was about seven years old he arrived at the orphanage. He walked in and ignored everyone but me. For the first time someone I could respect had stepped into my life. I left with him. Left that building, left the bullies, left Tome-san, left home. 

 

The man’s name was Leo Akaba, he took me in and raised me in his adopted son. He opened his Academy on a secluded island, he made me stronger. Gave me a new home, gave me more powerful, consistent cards to work with my treasured ace. An archetype he felt suited me. My Predaplants.

 

I fought day in and day out until I had defeated any and all the students that attended Leo’s school. I had no friends, but that didn't matter as long as I had rivals. I was alone, but Leo had given me a purpose so I wasn’t empty. 

 

With the arrival of a girl, things once again changed.

 

Serena, was her name. She had long azure hair that she wore down, she had green eyes and she was the closest thing to a friend I ever had.

 

We didn’t see eye to eye all the time, she was constantly trying to prove something, she was strong and like me, had no friends. Somehow, we found each other and grew close. We each had no recollection of our parents and a single card that meant everything to us. Except she had another thing, a bracelet. 

 

Serena and I trained together constantly, of course, I always won. We defeated Duel Academy together, with me standing at number 1. Serena as my second, having never defeated me. 

 

“Yuri,” she had said one night, while we stared up at the brightest moon I had ever seen. “Someday, I am going to leave Duel Academy, and when I do. Will you come with me?” Her words had startled me. Leave Duel Academy? Leave home? But it was at that moment that I realised something. Duel Academy had never meant as much to me as Serena. Her eyes were staring up at the moon, the white glowing circle reflected in her beautiful green eyes. I had smiled, the first genuine smile I ever had and hugged her as I answered. 

 

“Of course.”

 

For a while everything was great, Serena and I talked, laughed and opened up to each other. We shared a bedroom, we shared our feelings, we shared our strategies, we shared our cards. On one of her birthdays I gave her a present. Something I had never done for anyone else. A yellow hair ribbon. 

I thought she would rather wear her hair up and out of her face than down all the time and for once she agreed. Serena accepted my gift and gave me something in return. A kiss. 

 

That was probably the best, most surprising thing I had ever been given. Serena couldn't help but grin at my dumbfounded, blushing expression as she tied her hair up into a ponytail using the yellow ribbon I had picked out for her. 

 

Serena and I grew a little closer that day and soon, another person attached themselves to me. A boy. 

 

When Dennis Mackfield joined Duel Academy, I at first considered him an idiot. He was just too damn happy. He obsessed with performance and entertainment rather than victory and something about that got under my skin. His goofy grin somehow made its way into my every waking moment. Dennis’ obsession with making me his friend was _seriously_ annoying, he followed me everywhere asking questions that I refused to answer. One day, his constant pestering finally got me to crack. 

 

“Shut up!” I had said, “you don’t know a damn thing about me! What I’ve had to deal with! So leave me alone!” I can still remember the expression on his face. At first shock, then he smiled. The second genuine, kind smile I had ever seen on a person after Serena. The second time someone looked as though they actually cared about me. 

 

“I know,” he had said, resting his hands upon my shoulders. “That’s why I’m not leaving you alone ever again Yuri.” 

 

That was the first moment in my life since the orphanage that I had cried. It wasn’t intentional, I didn't mean to, didn't want to. But I did. Right there in Dennis’ arms. Those were the words. The words I had waited so long to hear, and like that, Serena and I had acquired a new friend. 

 

Dennis added life to our little group. People were still afraid of us, or rather, afraid of me, but we had each other and that was all that mattered. Dennis also taught me a valuable lesson. A lesson in wit. While he himself was not an overly funny person, as pointed out several times by Serena, he did have a good few pointers. As such I learned the noble art of sarcasm, something I would consider to be one of my greatest achievements. Mostly because Dennis and I enjoyed it, and Serena did not. It was a strange group, a performer, a soldier and a predator. But to me it was my family. 

 

Life, however, had never been fair with me. It toyed with me, enjoyed my suffering unless I allowed others to experience the same.

 

I don’t know how it happened. It was mid-spring, when the flowers were in full bloom. Leo had called me to his chamber in order to discuss something. I said my goodbyes to Serena and Dennis and began the trek through the hallways of the castle. It was just a Ra Yellow, a scrawny boy with brown hair, he stopped me halfway down the corridor. 

 

“Out of the way,” I said, moving to walk past him, but the boy shook his head, grinning at me. 

 

“I’ve had enough of you pushing us around, Yuri,” the boy drawled, he walked forward, taking the knife out from the pocket of his yellow jacket. I just blinked at him,

 

“Is that supposed to intimidate me?” I asked, crossing my arms and looking at the advancing boy, “I really have somewhere I need to be.”

 

“Intimidate you?” The boy was speaking softly now, low, “I’m afraid your mistaken. It’s supposed to kill you.” I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Kill me? Who did this guy think he is? But he spoke again and I knew that he wasn’t lying. “What’s so funny Yuri? Didn’t you hear me? I’m going to kill you. Right here, right now.” I stopped, staring at the boy, he wasn’t joking. The dull lifeless eyes, the flashing blade, the way he moved like a cat towards me. I started to feel something I wasn’t used to. Fear. But then a voice spoke, cool and gentle, like a soft velvet in my ear,

 

_“Oh dear, your in quite the predicament.”_

 

I swung round, looking for the owner of the voice but there was no one in the corridor but myself and the nut job Ra Yellow. I turned back to the boy, taking a step back as he advanced. The voice spoke again, and this time, it filled me with dread,

 

_“Looks like I’m going to have to step in.”_

 

The boy swung for my neck but I dodged. The blade grazing my left ear instead, blood began to trickle warm and sticky down the side of my head. I was afraid. Cupping my ear, the voice spoke again and I didn't have enough time to react,

 

_“Shh Yuri, its ok, let me take it from here.”_

 

I blacked out. 

 

When I came to I was lying in the corridor. I sat up, unsticking myself from the floor. Vision blurry I looked at my hands. Blood. Thick and red coated them. I forced myself not to throw up. There was more blood on the floor too, great puddles and stains soiling the carpet. Some smears looked as though something had been dragged through them. Choking I turned, afraid of what I might see, afraid that it was what I had feared it to be. I stumbled back, pressing a hand to my mouth as I looked at the scene before me. 

 

The Ra Yellow boy was slumped against the wall. Covered in blood that leaked from a gash in his leg. There was more cuts along his arms and a great furrow had been made in his torso. The knife lodged in his throat. There was more blood on the wall as if he had bee thrown against it and what seemed like claw marks had been scratched into the wallpaper. The boy’s eyes were dull, staring down at the blood soaked carpet. He was very much dead. 

 

Choking a bloodied hand still pressed to my mouth I ran. Ran down the corridor and away from the boy. _Oh God, I killed him. I had actually killed him! I killed him, he’s dead and its all my fault!_ As I ran tears bubbled up in my eyes, blurring my vision. I had to get away. I _had_ to get _away_. 

 

I stopped only when I was in the front courtyard, on the other side of the Academy.

 

Serena and Dennis saw me and ran over as I gasped and gagged. Now more than ever, people were keeping their distance, whispering and pointing at my blood soaked uniform. 

 

“What happened?” Dennis asked, concern etching into his features. 

 

“Are you hurt?” Serena added. I looked up, looked into the faces of my two closest friends. 

 

“Serena,” I choked, “do you… remember our promise?” She startled, looking confused before realisation painted itself over her face. 

 

“You can’t mean…”

 

“We’re leaving,” I sobbed, “I can’t stay here, I d-don’t know what’s happening to me. If I stay I’ll kill someone else. I need to find someone who can help me. I need to leave Duel Academy, for good.”


End file.
